Life Lessons for Creativity

1. We are all unique and gifted.
"Since you are like no other being ever created since the beginning of time, you are incomparable." Brenda Ueland

2. Life is perception.
"We do not see things as they are. We see them as we are." Anais Nin

3. Childlikeness: Never lose it!
"The most potent muse of all is our own inner child." Stephan Nachmanovitch

4. Permission and limitations.
"Argue for your limitations and, sure enough, they're yours." Richard Bach
"Take life into your own hands and what happens? A terrible thing. No one to blame." Erica Jong

5. Don't seek approval
"To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong." Joseph Chilton Pearce

6. We must have wings and feet.
"Imagination is more important than knowledge." Albert Einstein
"He who has imagination without learning has wings and no feet." Joseph Joubert

7. Determine what is traditional, accepted and expected … and don't do it."
"The voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes but in having new eyes." Marcel Proust

8. Be true to yourself.
"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music he hears, however measured, or far away." Henry David Thoreau

9. If we're not having fun, we're not doing it right.
"I used to wait for a sign … before I did anything. Then one night I had a dream and an angel in black tights came to me and said, 'You can start any time now.' And then I asked, is this a sign? And the angel started laughing and I woke up. Now I think the whole world is filled with signs, but if there's no laughter, I know they're not for me." Brian Andreas

10. We have to kiss a lot of frogs.
"A man who does not make mistakes does not usually make anything." Edward John Phelps

11. We must share our gifts to experience their ultimate blessings.
"For me, the art process is not complete without the viewer." James Christiansen

12."Solitude" and "Now": the gifts we give ourselves
"Life is a succession of moments. To live each one is to succeed." Corita Kent